NASCAR: 5 positive storylines nobody could have predicted
By Asher Fair
NASCAR-IndyCar relationship
As 2004 IndyCar champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan recently noted in an interview with 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick and Matt Yocum on SiriusXM’s NASCAR Channel, this coronavirus pandemic could serve as a way to unify the NASCAR and IndyCar fanbases.
Kanaan and Harvick agreed that as far as the drivers are concerned, they never really haven’t been able to get along, but there is a “separate stigma” as far as the fans are concerned.
Already, we are seeing signs of unity, which goes along with what Kanaan said before this interview: “It is not us and them. It is the motorsports world.”
Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, who has long stated that he would like to compete in IndyCar road course races after he retires from full-time Cup Series competition after the 2020 season, had his first IndyCar test lined up with Arrow McLaren SP at Barber Motorsports Park before the pandemic knocked that off the schedule.
He ended up making his IndyCar debut after all, in the opening race of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge at virtual Watkins Glen International. He also competed in the second race at virtual Barber Motorsports Park.
Johnson has stated that a real IndyCar test is still on his “bucket list”, and he is still eyeing his actual IndyCar debut at some point in the future. Notably, it may come sooner than expected.
In response to several postponements and cancellations, IndyCar recently revealed an overhauled 2020 schedule, and it featured the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course moved to Independence Day weekend, which is the new Brickyard 400 weekend at the track’s oval.
Previously, the word was that the earliest possible season for a NASCAR-IndyCar doubleheader was 2022. Now it’s on the schedule for under three months from now.
Whether or not Johnson competes in this race is unknown, but regardless, this weekend, assuming it also doesn’t end up being postponed, could serve as an amazing silver lining and a way to push Kanaan’s thought that “it is not us and them”, especially since it would take place after what has been one of the hardest stretches of time the world as a whole has ever experienced.